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A Short Pilgrimage

To a Land of Sloping Shale, Dark Woods and Extendable Steeds I love driving north through Champagne. The vinyards peter out, replaced by wide rolling fields and finally steeper slopes and forest fill the horizon. The Ardennes*. There are too many trucks and tractors...

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The Boy Who Grew Up and the Magic Laundry Basket

Or Believing is Believing I have a grown-up son. Naturally, this didn’t happen overnight although I am seriously questioning my notions of time and how it’s perceived. It won’t come as a surprise to other parents with grown-up kids that it DID seem like yesterday he...

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King of the Castle

Or All About Illustrators, Illusions and Imperial Eagles I’m sure it’s no secret how much I enjoy the company of castles. In a former life, I’d happily imagine myself king of some regal keep - though it’s more likely I’d have been a beggar at the gates....

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A Letter from Leipzig

Or A Few Thoughts From Somewhere Near Asgard I’m writing this in Leipzig, next to the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, quite content to be here, having set off across town unable to even pronounce the interminable name, even less remember more than one or two syllables. (My...

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Ravens, Rhinos, Ruins & Rust

Or the Uses and Abuses of Documentation I have masses and masses of documentation. Likely enough to be convicted of collusion in the untimely death of a decent-size grove of trees. The wall behind the computer has a daunting set of shelves containing well over 100...

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New Zealand – and Back Again

Or “There and Back Again” (Again) “There and Back Again” (as the title would tend to imply) is getting around a lot more than I manage to. After Comic-Con in San Diego, it will be shown and the 2nd DOCNZ International Documentary Film Festival, to will be held in...

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In Search of Gormenghast

Or All About Grail Hunting: Means, Ends and Time Allotted For: My admiration of Mervyn Peake is no secret, and I’ve written clumsy but enthusiastic words of praise of his work before. So, you can well imagine, when asked to contribute a little text for a new book on...

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Summer 2007 in Saint-Ursanne

Or A Little Fantasy, But for Real This Time I get lost easily, and some places make me lose my way more completely than others. I believe in getting all tied up and involved with places, especially when the ties are those of mood, spirit or simply something in the...

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News from a Far Land

Or the Fine Art of Displacement I’m writing this from Toronto. Not really a newsletter;  a few thoughts from somewhere closer to and farther away from home. The one undeniable thing about one’s birthplace are those inescapable ties, whether we deny them or wish to...

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Focusing

Or Opening Boxes in the Attic I’ve not been gifted with an organized mind. It is rather like an attic, (my attic, actually; are our attics perhaps accurate manifestations of our minds?) not very big, with roof beams I continually bang my head on in a moment of...

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“Hold The Line, Please.”

Or Conversations from Outer Space Here is an exchange I recently had with a local newspaper: “Picture research, please.” “Speaking.” “Hello, I’m phoning about an image of mine printed in last Sunday’s paper.” “?” “You know, the paper you print on… well… Sunday. The...

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